Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Archaea
Volume 2015, Article ID 968582, 14 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/968582

Research Article
Diversity and Distribution of Archaea in
the Mangrove Sediment of Sundarbans

Anish Bhattacharyya,1 Niladri Shekhar Majumder,2 Pijush Basak,1

Shayantan Mukherji,3 Debojyoti Roy,1 Sudip Nag,1
Anwesha Haldar,4 Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay,1 Suparna Mitra,5
Maitree Bhattacharyya,1 and Abhrajyoti Ghosh3
1
Department of Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700019, India
2
Roche Diagnostics India Pvt. Ltd., Block 4C, Akash Tower, Near Ruby Hospital, 781 Anandapur, Kolkata 700107, India
3
Department of Biochemistry, Bose Institute, P1/12, C. I. T. Road, Scheme VIIM, Kolkata, West Bengal 700054, India
4
Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700019, India
5
Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia and Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Norwich,
Norfolk NR4 7UA, UK

Correspondence should be addressed to Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay; dhrubajyotic@gmail.com,

Suparna Mitra; suparna.mitra.sm@gmail.com, Maitree Bhattacharyya; bmaitree@gmail.com,
and Abhrajyoti Ghosh; aghosh78@gmail.com

Received 30 March 2015; Revised 25 June 2015; Accepted 14 July 2015

Academic Editor: William B. Whitman

Copyright © 2015 Anish Bhattacharyya et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

Mangroves are among the most diverse and productive coastal ecosystems in the tropical and subtropical regions. Environmental
conditions particular to this biome make mangroves hotspots for microbial diversity, and the resident microbial communities play
essential roles in maintenance of the ecosystem. Recently, there has been increasing interest to understand the composition and
contribution of microorganisms in mangroves. In the present study, we have analyzed the diversity and distribution of archaea in
the tropical mangrove sediments of Sundarbans using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The extraction of DNA from sediment
samples and the direct application of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing resulted in approximately 142 Mb of data from three
distinct mangrove areas (Godkhali, Bonnie camp, and Dhulibhashani). The taxonomic analysis revealed the dominance of phyla
Euryarchaeota and Thaumarchaeota (Marine Group I) within our dataset. The distribution of different archaeal taxa and respective
statistical analysis (SIMPER, NMDS) revealed a clear community shift along the sampling stations. The sampling stations (Godkhali
and Bonnie camp) with history of higher hydrocarbon/oil pollution showed different archaeal community pattern (dominated by
haloarchaea) compared to station (Dhulibhashani) with nearly pristine environment (dominated by methanogens). It is indicated
that sediment archaeal community patterns were influenced by environmental conditions.

1. Introduction that archaea are much more widespread and metabolically

Archaea, representing the third domain of life, were orig-
inally anticipated to thrive under extreme environments,
such as hydrothermal vents, hot water springs, salt brines,
and extremely acidic and anoxic environments, where they
contribute significantly towards the maintenance of the
biogeochemical cycles [1–7]. However, with the advent of
molecular techniques, it has become increasingly evident
diverse than originally postulated. A considerable portion
of the microbial communities in a wide variety of “nonex-
treme” environments, for example, soil, ocean, and lakes, is
constituted by archaea [8–13]. Despite the increasing interest
to understand the ecophysiology of archaea, the lack of
knowledge with respect to mesophilic and cold-adopted
archaea is still enormous [9, 14, 15].